Category Archives: Art

July 18, 2017 · 23:40

Something Special In The Mail

[EDIT: This was written AND FREAKIN’ PUBLISHED last night at about 23:40! Now WordPress is asking if I want to publish or delete it. I swear, i pushed the “Publish” button and saw it go. I was wondering why no one had mentioned it… I’m telling you, I’m needing a much better class of hallucination.]

I knew this would probably be coming, because I subscribe to her Patreon account (worth every penny, I love her and her work and her music and her art and her TED talk and her book) but I had sort of forgotten in all of the hubbub. (Stupid freakin’ hubbub!) Then I started seeing other people saying they had gotten theirs and after a while I was wondering if I might have gotten missed or lost. But again, even in that I was so caught up in the 9 to 5 chaos (or in my case, the 7 to 24 chaos) that even that didn’t get through to me.

But I recognized that sigil. I tried very hard not to squeee in the post office. I buried it in with the bills, magazines, and junk mail and waited until I got home to double check.

Even without the return address label, the stamps would have given it away.

‘Tis a thing to be cherished. And I will!

 

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Filed under Art, Music

June 5, 2017 · 22:26

Which Plane Was It?

There was a collision between an airplane picture and a rabid PhotoShop – no one made it out alive, except for a kitten that had fallen asleep back in the luggage compartment.

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Filed under Art, Photography

April 18, 2017 · 23:15

No Context For You – April 18th

I seem to remember there was some blind celebrity (Ray Charles? Stevie Wonder?) who was actually an accomplished photographer. I try to remember that as inspiration, or at least a bar that’s set fairly low, when I find pictures like this on my phone.

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February 22, 2017 · 23:22

Sunset On Trappist-1e

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It’s only forty light-years away! I’m ready to go!!

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Filed under Art, Astronomy, Space

June 30, 2016 · 22:54

Who Could It Be?

A couple of days ago I posted an odd creation I had made by goofing around with IrfanView, which I was using because I’m slowly setting up a new computer and I hadn’t re-installed Photoshop yet.

That situation was corrected this evening.

To test the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station installation I took something random off of my Twitter feed tonight and started goofing around with it.

But it’s a game – you can play!

Here’s your clue – the original photo contained someone named in a Tom Lehrer song – can you see them and who is it?

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For anyone who’s a regular here, I’m not sure if this is as hard as it might appear at first. We’ll see.

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Filed under Art, Computers

June 28, 2016 · 23:31

No Photoshop!

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This is:

a. What I saw in my dreams last night after eating way too much really spicy jambalaya at The Long-Suffering Wife’s birthday dinner

b. What I saw in the mirror this morning when I was awake this morning after eating way too much really spicy jambalaya at The Long-Suffering Wife’s birthday dinner

c. Something bizarre which truly did involve no PhotoShop manipulation – because I haven’t yet re-installed PhotoShop on my new computer so I had to see what IrfanView could do with it

d. A combination of infrared and gamma ray images of Donald Trump’s hair.

e. Art

f. All of the above

Show your work.

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June 1, 2016 · 23:14

Play, June 1st

When in doubt – play!

It’s such a simple concept that we forget so easily. Just spend a few minutes with some software, a camera, a pen & paper, some paint, Legos, or any one of a hundred thousand other things that gave us pleasure as children and ask, “What happens if I do this?”

Adulting would be so much easier and more pleasant if we were better at remembering this. Actually, strike “remembering.” Adulting would be so much easier and more pleasant if we were better at being this.

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January 20, 2016 · 23:13

One Of Those Days

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I hate it when you get up in the morning and the sun has been eaten by a black hole and Chtulu and the Elder Gods decide that’s the day they’re going to return! Some days it’s better to just stay in bed.

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Filed under Art, Panorama, Photography

December 22, 2015 · 22:15

Painting & Wine

There’s a new “thing” out there in the cultural zeitgeist, at least here in SoCal, where ordinary people with little or no artistic training (or talent) get together to drink wine and paint a picture. It can be done as a date night sort of thing, or a group can rent out the whole place for a couple hours for a team building type of thing.

The Long-Suffering Wife did it a while back with a group from her place of employment – she thought it was fantastic. I had my opportunity last night as we had our office Christmas party at one of these places.

The Long-Suffering Wife was correct. It was a lot of fun. It also helped that I was at a Christmas party with people I really enjoy working with in a company that I really like. And the wine was pretty good.

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Big strokes, gobs of paint. It’s a bit like follow the leader or painting by numbers. Small, simple steps, with instructors wandering around to help – everyone’s was recognizable as coming from the “master” image we were copying, but they were all quite individual.

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We’re using acrylics. It’s interesting to see how many people worry about doing it “right.” There is no “right.” You’re with friends, you’re drinking wine, chill and play with it!

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My biggest problem was technical – the most fine, narrow lines I wanted to do were like using one of those super fat markers. I’m sure I would get it with practice.

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Dabbing, however, I excelled at. (This is your surprised face…)

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I was sorely tempted from the beginning to deliberately go off the rails, using the wrong colors and/or painting something completely different than everyone else was. (Next time, for sure!)

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This is the one finished by our instructor, which is what we were trying for (in theory).

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This is mine. Not great, but not bad since it’s about thirty-six years since I last painted. That’s the advantage to going off the rails – if no one knows what it’s supposed to look like, no one can tell you how much you missed the mark.

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Finally, the walls are lined with hundreds of other pictures that you can paint in different classes, including this one. I kept asking which one was Morrissey, but the only person who got the joke was one of the instructors.

Kids these days!

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Filed under Art, Habitat For Humanity, Paul, Photography

September 29, 2015 · 23:17

Why The Long Face?

  1. Even with a nose like that, things can’t be that bad! Of course, you do have that whole “horns instead of eyeballs” thing going on, so I guess that could be depressing.
  2. Where in hell did they shoot that thing and what kind of ammo do you use? How do you get a taxidermist to mount something like that?
  3. Get Ensign Willett up here ASAP! He mounted that thing upside down!
  4. It’s Satanic! A Satanic face right there on a US Navy ship! Obviously part of the liberal, left-wing conspiracy to sabotage our armed forces! Burn the witch!
  5. Idiot! Never been on a farm, obviously. That’s not the head mounted, that’s the butt mounted. See, the tail hanging down and the junk hanging under the tail. Those things at the top? Turn signals! It’s like you’ve never even seen a live cow!

Pareidolia, folks! Ask for it by name, accept no substitutes. (A couple of lousy nights of sleep in a row helps.)

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